


Thunderstorms, Coffee, and Candles

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, CCBMV, Captain Canary and their cards, Diners, Earth-3, I would place it there if I had to pick an Earth, The Hawks, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 21:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9677015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: A thunderstorm and a broken down car bring Leonard Snart to the Waverider Diner...and to meet Sara Lance.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Happy early Valentine's Day/ Single's Awareness Day to AGirlNamedWhiskey! I was your CCBMV! i was going to post this on Tuesday, but Monday and Tuesday are both extremely hectic days, so I'm going to give this to you now! Hope you don't mind.
> 
> I know you love your AU's, and I decided to kind of follow that pattern, although I was really floundering for a while to figure out which one. I ended up finding one by taking inspiration out of real life. There's this old abandoned diner that I've always passed by on my way to my state capital, and I always love going by it. It ended up being good for the muse, and thus this fic was born.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

                Of all the places to be on Valentine’s Day, the last place Leonard Snart had expected to end up was a diner next to a rest stop. He never would have ended up there if his car hadn’t broken down, or if his phone hadn’t died on him when he tried to call his sister. That had been what made him decide to hike to the nearest place of civilization, which couldn’t have been far since there was a sign for an exit in the distance. He hadn’t counted on the light rain to quickly develop into a downpour. By the time he reached the diner and hurried inside, he was soaked to the bone.

“Not exactly the day for a stroll, huh?” someone remarked.

                Leonard turned toward the source of the voice to see a woman turned around in her seat at the counter. She was smirking a little, her blonde braid hanging over her shoulder. The man who was behind the counter grinned briefly at that.

“It wasn’t really planned,” Leonard grumbled, shedding the coat that had given him some protection when the downpour had started while making his way to the counter. “There a phone here?”

The man behind the counter (Nate, according to his nametag) pointed over to the wall, where the phone was. Leonard gave him a short nod and crossed over to it. Inserting a few coins, he dialed Lisa’s number, waiting for her to pick up.

After a few rings, she picked up. “Hello?”

“Lisa, it’s me.”

There was some muttering in the background, followed by Lisa shushing someone. Her boyfriend was probably over at her place. “Lenny? Where are you?”

Leonard glanced at a menu. “Waverider Diner. My car broke down and my phone died, so I had to hike to go find one.”

“I told you something was going to happen to your car. Cisco’s never wrong.”

“I don’t care how many times he’s right,” Leonard groaned. “Lisa, he’s not psychic.”

“Tell that to all the things he’s predicted correctly. It’s not luck, Lenny.”

He sighed. “Lisa, do you think you can come pick me up?”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” his sister replied. “I’ll look up where this diner is, and I’ll be on my way.”

“Thanks, sis,” he said before hanging up.

* * *

 

                Sara watched as the man who had entered the diner hung up the phone and made his way over the counter where she was. He left a seat in between them as he sat down. She had been surprised when he first came into the diner, given that Nate had told her things had been slow due to the storm that had been going on for most of the day. Had she not been old friends with Nate, she probably would have kept on driving home to Central City too. But every time she passed by the Waverider Diner, she always made a visit to him.

“How’s the coffee here?” the man asked, the question directed to both Nate and herself.

“Pretty good actually,” Sara told him, drawing his attention towards her. “At least, I like it. Whatever the case, it’s better than what my roommate once made.”

The man smirked a little and ordered a cup of coffee from Nate. Her friend went over to the coffeemaker as the man turned back to Sara.

“How bad was the coffee your roommate made?” he asked.

“Thick as mud and didn’t taste much better,” Sara shuddered at the memory. “I don’t know how she did it. After trying it, I couldn’t touch a cup for a few years. When Nate gave me a cup of his, I started drinking it again.”

He laughed a little as Nate set the cup in front of him before paying for it. “Good or not, I’ll take anything warm after being in that rain.”

“Your car broke down, right?” Sara asked, getting a slight frown out of the man. “I heard you on the phone.”

“It did,” the man sighed. “I’ve been having trouble with it lately, and I was hoping to make it back to Central. Instead, it decides to give out on me, and then my phone decided to follow that pattern.”

“Ouch,” Sara grimaced. “Well, at least it didn’t break down earlier. You would have had a longer walk.”

“That’s a very good point, Ms…”

“Lance,” Sara supplied. “Sara Lance.”

He nodded. “Leonard Snart.”

“Nice to meet you, Leonard,” she smiled. “So, where were you going before your car quit?”

“Central City,” Leonard told her. “I was on my way home from a research trip in Starling. How about you?”

“Also heading back to Central from Starling, except I was visiting my sister,” she explained. “She and her husband just had a baby, and I decided to use some vacation days to see them. Every time I go between Central and Starling, I always stop here. Nate’s an old friend of mine, and the stuff here’s pretty good.”

“Good to know the next time I head to Starling,” Leonard murmured thoughtfully. “Which could happen again soon depending on how my research holds up.”

“What were you researching up there anyways?” Sara asked.

“Some of the records of the city,” he told her. “I’ve been working on a book.”

“Are you writing about the Undertaking?” she inquired. The earthquake that had quite literally rocked Starling City had only happened a few years back. It would make sense if people were starting to write books about it instead of opinion pieces in newspapers.

However, Leonard shook his head. “It’s more obscure than that. If you didn’t know, then I wouldn’t blame you. I didn’t even know about it until last year when someone I met shared their story about it with me.”

“I spent my childhood in Starling City,” Sara smirked. “Try me?”

He smirked and took a sip of his coffee. “Ever heard of the legend of the Hawks?”

Sara raised her eyebrows. “The bird people that apparently live in the Glades?”

“There’ve been a lot of thoughts on them, if they even exist or not. I’ve been looking up every theory I can about them and the evidence that has been provided to support it. Let the reader decide what they really are.”

“And what do you think they are?” Sara asked, tilting her head at him. “You might be the one collecting all of this research, but there has to be some kind of explanation you lean towards most.”

There was a long pause before he finally shook his head and sighed. “I think they exist. After all, there are metahumans in Central City, although there have been sightings of them before the disaster at STAR Labs even happened. Gun to my head, I’d say that they’re the result of some sort of mutation. Although one theory that I highly doubt is plausible is the reincarnation one.”

“Well, I always thought they were an urban legend of the Glades,” Sara shrugged. “Although some people have come to the paper claiming they have a story about them stopping crime in Central City.

“You work for the newspaper?” Leonard raised his eyebrows.

“I do,” she nodded. “Not a headliner. Maybe one day though I might make the front page. But I’m not stealing your Hawk story. Not unless they are seen in public and I get assigned to that story.”

                Lightning flashed outside of the diner. A crash of thunder followed almost instantly, making the walls of the Waverider Diner shake. A moment later, the lights blinked out. Still, Sara could see Leonard in front of her with the minimal light that made it through the windows.

“Dammit.”

Both Sara and Leonard turned towards Nate. Sara had forgotten that he had still been there. The man dropped below the counter, muttering something about how he was sure he had put a flashlight down here once. When he popped back up, he wasn’t holding a flashlight, but a few candles.

“Forgot these were down here,” he admitted. “These will have to do for now.”

He lit a candle to place in between them and started working on the others. As he moved away from them, Sara turned back to Leonard, noticing that he was smirking.

“What?” she frowned as he started to chuckle.

“Not the way I expected February 14 to be going,” Leonard replied. “But I don’t mind the way that it’s going now.”

“Well, you’re not the only one,” Sara agreed, letting herself smile as lightning briefly illuminated the diner again before sending them back into candlelight.

* * *

 

                Time went by quickly for them. Sara and Leonard talked some more before retreating to a booth by one of the windows to play cards with the slightly damp deck that Leonard had with him. Nate joined in with them for one round, but lost quickly and told them he was going to retreat to check and see if there was something he could do about finding more candles. He didn’t come back though, leaving Sara and Leonard to continue their discussions and games.

                After about three hours, the rain had only let up slightly and the lights were still out. A pair of headlights shined into the diner, making Sara and Leonard look up. Leonard could see that it was Lisa’s vehicle and set down his cards. A losing hand of cards, the queen of hearts responsible. Sara set hers down, and he could see that she had been close to beating him again.

“Guess I’m off,” he sighed, collecting the cards and standing up.

Sara scooted out of the booth herself and stretched. “I should get going too.”

Leonard looked over at her. “You never had to stay.”

“I wanted to,” she replied.

Before he could say anything else, she grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and a pen from her purse. He watched as she scrawled down a series of numbers before passing the napkin to him.

“Look me up when you get back to Central City,” she told him.

“Only if you do the same,” Leonard said as he grabbed another napkin and put his own phone number down.

She took the napkin from him. “It’s a deal. See you around, Leonard.”

“Goodbye, Sara,” he nodded as he tucked the napkin in his pocket to prevent it from getting wet.

Leonard grabbed his coat and left the diner, the rain pelting his face immediately. It was cold and harsh after spending three hours drying off. He hurried over to Lisa’s car and got inside before he could get soaked again. As Lisa drove away from the Waverider, Leonard looked back to see Sara leaving the diner for her own car.

* * *

 

A few days later, Sara met Leonard for lunch in Central City.

Within a few months, they moved into an apartment together.

Two years later, they were back at the Waverider Diner when Leonard proposed to Sara.

At their wedding, Nate was the one who shared the story of how Leonard and Sara met, and how he’d known immediately that two strangers would become something more.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully this was a good Valentine!


End file.
